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Cumbria GPs want NHS trust to boost resources

Doctors have called for increased resources and hit out at waiting times for eye surgery at Carlisle’s Cumberland Infirmary.

Ed Tallis

And they have also said there is a lack of communication between accident and emergency and other departments.

The GPs made their comments in a report – Listening to Cumbria – which dealt with patient and staff opinions of healthcare across the county.

Comments in the document included:

“A&E not integrating properly with other services, cataract waiting times too long, pain management service inadequate;”

“Please focus on management of acute admissions at CIC – needs increased resourcing and a rethink;”

Patients have a very difficult experience when admitted acutely… due to the intake team being overwhelmed… elderly patients have particularly bad experiences;”

“Long wait for cataract surgery.”

Patients also gave their responses in the report, commissioned by NHS Cumbria’s Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).

It followed a survey by the Care Quality Commission, the independent regulator of all health and adult social care in England, where respondents said they were pleased with accident and emergency services at run by the trust in Carlisle and at the West Cumberland Hospital in Whitehaven.

Ed Tallis, associate director of operations at North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “The trust is pleased to note that the majority of public respondents to the ‘Listening to Cumbria’ campaign were happy with their recent care in hospital.

“However, it is important to us to hear from patients about where improvements could be made.”

He also said the trust was looking into methods to make bookings simpler and cut waiting times.

“The trust is aware of the importance of waiting times to patients and GPs,” he said.

“We need to reduce our outpatient waiting times so that we can offer quicker appointments to those patients referred to us.”

Mr Tallis also said it was important the trust gathered more information about patient’s experiences. He said it is taking part in a Department of Health scheme to record this from April next year.

“The trust welcomes the opportunity to work closely with the CCG to understand these results and how they can be used to improve services for our patients.”

Dr Geoff Joliffe, one of CCG’s lead GPs, said: “This report demonstrates that in the majority services in Cumbria work well and that NHS staff up and down the county work tirelessly to support and help their patients.

“However, it is also important that we hear where perhaps things could have been better, so we can plug these in to our own priorities.

“Hopefully as a result of this work and our continued commitment to listen to patients we are focusing on these areas and working to make things better.”